Charlie Sheen Roast Deliberately Scheduled to Take On Ashton Kutcher’s ‘Men’ Debut

6:01 AM PDT 7/6/2011 by Lindsay Powers

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"It’s definitely fortuitous timing for us," says a network rep, who has high ratings expectations.

Comedy Central was deliberate in scheduling its Charlie Sheen roast on Sept. 19 -- the night Ashton Kutcher is to debut on Two and a Half Men.

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•Charlie Sheen

"It’s definitely fortuitous timing for us," a Comedy Central spokesperson tells AdWeek. "Everything aligned. We were dark with Daily Show and Colbert [because both hosts will be flying back from the Emmy Awards that day and thus unable to tape new episodes] and, yes, you have the premiere of Two and a Half Men."

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The net is confident the ratings will be high. "We're expecting it to do very well," the rep added. Donald Trump's March 5 roast drew 3.48 million viewers; David Hasselhoff's in August 2010 drew 3.51 million. The most-watched roast was comedian Jeff Foxworthy in 2009, which earned 4.44 million.

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Sheen has promised the network that no holds will be barred -- from his feud with Two and a Half Men co-creator Chuck Lorre, to the $100 million lawsuit against studio Warner Bros. and Lorre, to his wild drug claims.

"Charlie has assured us that nothing will be off limits in this roast, which scares even us," a network rep said.

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Sheen said in a statement Tuesday of the roast: "You could say I've been providing kindling for this roast for a while. It's time to light it up. It's going to be epic.”

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The roast will be executive produced by Joel Gallen from Tenth Planet Productions, who was also EP and director of the Trump, Hasselhoff, Joan Rivers and Pamela Anderson roasts.